Alison Barrett writes:
Australian governments have been slammed for violating the rights of children in the criminal justice system in 2024.
In its 35th annual review of human rights practices around the world, Human Rights Watch said for a “vibrant democracy”, Australia’s rights record is “marred by some key human rights concerns”, including its treatment of children in the criminal justice system.
“The Human Rights Watch report demonstrates that Australia is going backwards on the human rights of children,” said Anne Hollonds, National Children’s Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission.
At this critical time, all governments across Australia need to stand up for the human rights of Australia’s children, Hollonds said.
These concerns come as President Trump winds back rights for transgender people, reproductive rights and immigration in his inauguration week.
Tirana Hassan, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, wrote in the HRW report’s foreword:
Donald Trump’s return to the White House not only threatens rights within the US but will also affect, by commission and omission, respect for human rights abroad.
If the first Trump administration’s attacks on multilateral institutions, international law and the rights of marginalised groups are any indication, his second term could inflict even greater human rights damage, including by emboldening illiberal leaders worldwide to follow suit.”
The HRW report – published last week – also comes amid ongoing concerns about legislative changes in Northern Territory and Queensland that do not adhere to evidence-based principles or international laws regarding the safety, rights and wellbeing of children.
They also disproportionately impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
Last week, ABC News reported on leaked plans by the Northern Territory Government to make changes to the Care and Protection of Children Act, which would make it easier for courts to place Indigenous children in non-Indigenous placements, overriding the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle.
Catherine Liddle, Chief Executive of SNAICC, the national voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, told the ABC that the proposed changes were “discriminatory” and against recommendations made in numerous reports – including the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and Bringing Them Home Report – to “prevent further Stolen Generations”.
Liddle said the proposed amendments specifically targeted Indigenous children and pursuing the changes would place the NT Government in breach of its commitments under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
Also attracting widespread condemnation, both in Australia and overseas, the Queensland Government legislated the Making Queensland Safer Act on 13 December 2024.
Hollonds told Croakey the new Queensland law could result in children as young as 10 being sentenced as adults, including mandatory life sentences. ‘Detention as a last resort’ has also been removed as a key principle guiding the sentencing of children, she said.
“This makes Australia the only country in the world that has removed this principle for children. These and other measures in the Act contravene Australia’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,” Hollonds said.
“Along with the NT Government recently lowering the age of criminal responsibility, this is an international embarrassment, and it signals to the world that Australia has moved backwards on human rights.”
Ann Skelton, chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, strongly criticised Queensland’s new laws, saying they were a “flagrant disregard for children’s rights under international law”.
She said in a video on LinkedIn that the UN does not agree with claims the Act will make Queensland safer. She urges the Queensland Government to “stand firm with the principle that children should be treated differently from adults in the criminal justice system”.
In what Skelton described as “extraordinary”, the Act was legislated despite Deb Frecklington, Queensland’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Minster for Integrity, admitting in a Statement of Compatibility that “amendments in the Bill which implement ‘adult crime, adult time’ and abolish the principle of detention as a last resort for children are incompatible with” the Human Rights Act 2019.
Statements aired by politicians and media about youth crime surges in Queensland have been widely contested and are not based on current evidence. ABC News reported last year that the rate of youth offenders in Queensland had reduced substantially since 2009 – from 3,338 youth per 100,000 population to 1,847.
Disproportionate impact
The findings of the Human Rights Watch report “are not surprising”, according to Associate Professor Hannah McGlade, Curtin University.
She told Croakey, “we have seen the situation concerning Aboriginal youth deteriorate across Australia with states introducing laws that clearly violate UN international human rights laws”.
McGlade said the harmful laws and treatment of children mainly target and impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, which “is a form of racial discrimination”, prohibited by the UN Convention on the Elimination of Race Discrimination.
“What we are seeing is state violence and disregard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and other treaties and UN Rules that we [Australia] agreed to, and which are binding in Australia,” she said.
“Political parties are winning elections based on racist policies to Aboriginal people. It’s really shameful on Australia.
“What all of this says is what Aboriginal people have long known. We have not addressed racism in Australia, states are engaging in racism and passing racist laws that violate our UN human rights obligations and vulnerable children are being especially impacted.
“This causes loss of life at its worst but certainly is harmful and damaging to children and does nothing at all to build safety in communities,” she said.
McGlade called for the Federal Government to urgently respond to Commissioner Hollonds’ 2024 ‘Help Way Earlier’ report, which was tabled in parliament last year.
Hollonds told Croakey that the lack of accountability for child wellbeing over many decades represents failures of successive governments. She has repeatedly called for the wellbeing of Australia’s children to become a priority for National Cabinet.
A public hearing for the Senate standing committee’s inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system will be held at Parliament House on 3 February.
Catherine Liddle, CEO of SNAICC, told Croakey that reading the Human Rights Watch Report is a stark reminder of where Australia falls when it comes to the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our justice systems and in particular, juvenile justice.
“This report makes it very clear – Australia is falling behind when it comes to the treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children by our justice systems,” she said.
“It is another in a history of reports and recommendations that advocate for raising the age of criminal responsibility and addressing the underlying causes of youth crime. We know investment in early intervention and family services is the way forward to address juvenile justice in Australia – what we need is action on the measures that work.”
Therapeutic rehabilitation
Dawn Ross, Acting CEO of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, told Croakey they welcome the Human Rights Watch report for bringing the world’s attention to the over-representation of young Aboriginal people in detention.
“We all want a safe community to live, work and care for our families,” Ross said. “We will not achieve this by locking children up.”
Congress has long been an advocate for evidence-based solutions to offending by Aboriginal young people, Ross said.
These include secure, therapeutic care that focusses on rehabilitation and strengthening families to take responsibility for their children.
Congress also warns that sending children as young as 10 years old to prison will not reduce crime or make the community safer. They oppose the Northern Government’s legislation to lower the minimum criminal age of responsibility from 12 to 10 years.
“Children aged between 10 and 12 years old do not yet have the capacity to be fully responsible for their actions. Their brains are still developing. Locking up these children will only damage their development further and they will be more likely to re-offend in the future,” Ross said.
“For those kids who do need to be detained, alternative models for youth detention are required that focus on rehabilitation through secure, therapeutic care.
“They need to be taught the social and educational skills needed to obtain employment and to re-join their families and communities. The Diagrama model has been successful internationally and should be trialled here in the Northern Territory.”
Read the full statement by Congress.
Human rights violations
Human Rights Watch said, “as the only Western democracy without a national human rights act or charter, the Australian Government should promptly introduce a new national Human Rights Act”.
The report highlighted the harsh conditions that children are subject to in Western Australia and Queensland detention facilities designed for adults, including long periods of solitary confinement, overcrowding, and no access to fresh air or outdoor exercise.
It also pointed to the NT Government lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 12 to 10 and reintroducing the use of spit hoods on children, both in 2024.
In addition to violations of the human rights of Australian children, the HRW report highlights the lack of Federal Government progress on First Nations’ rights following the unsuccessful Voice to Parliament referendum in 2023.
The report also highlighted other human rights failures of the Federal Government in 2024:
- Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers
- Delayed introduction of the new Aged Care Act until July 2025
- Criticism for only fully accepting 13 of the 172 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability
- Criticism for failing to advance proposed amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act to safeguard students and teachers from discrimination
- Approving three coal mine expansions in September 2024.
Human Rights Watch also said that Australia’s Federal Government “uses its sanctions regime sparingly”.
For example, in 2024 it only used its “thematic human rights or corruption sanctions on entities or individuals in Iran, Russia and Israel…To date, no Chinese officials have been sanctioned by the Australian Government”.
Read the full World Report 2025 here.
See Croakey’s archive of articles on human rights.